Wall hanger



m 1967 LA ROY. B. PASSER 3,2

WALL HANGER Filed March '7, 1966 F/G./ H62 INVENTOR LaROY B. PASSERATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,298,651 WALL HANGER La Roy B. Passer,107 Randall Ave, Port Jefferson, N.Y. 11777 Filed Mar. 7, 1966, Ser. No.532,189 8 Claims. (Cl. 248-217) The present invention relates to a wallhanger.

It is the primary object of my invention to provide a new and improvedwall hanger which can be readily and quickly affixed to a wall surfaceand which will thereafter remain firmly secured thereto so that picturesand other objects may be suspended from said hanger. It is yet anotherobject of my invention to provide a wall hanger of the characterdescribed which includes a pair of slender pointed tines that arecompoundly curved, i.e. curved both downwardly and laterally, theaforesaid curvature enabling the tines to enter a wall surface along acompoundly curved line and to curl within the wall so that althougheasily emplaced by thumb pressure, the hanger will not readily comeloose.

It is another object of my invention to provide a wall hangerof thecharacter described wherein the tines are integral with and sheared fromthe sides of the hanger and joined thereto at their bases, and thehanger further includes an integral hook, the aforesaid constructionpermitting manufacture of my wall hanger with an economy of material andby mass production techniques to yield a low-cost but desirable product.

It is still a further object of my invention to provide a wall hanger ofthe character described which is manufactured in the form of a strip ofidentical head-to head interconnected wall hangers and which is sold inthis form to the consumer, eachhanger being connected to an adjacenthanger on a strip by a weakened zone, such as a score line, at which theuser may easily separate the hangers when they are to be used.

v Other objects of my invention in part will be obvious and in part willbecome apparent to the reader in the following description.

My invention accordingly consists in the features of construction,combinations of elements and arrangements of parts which Will beexemplified in the wall hanger hereinafter described and of which thescope of application will be indicated in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings in which is shown one possible embodimentof my invention,

FIG; 1 isa front elevational view of a wall hanger constructed inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view thereof;

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the wall hanger;

FIG. 4 is a front perspective View of several identical wall hangersjoined head-to-foot in a strip;

FIG. 5 is a top plan view of the hanger emplaced into a wall (shown insection) and especially illustrating the added lateral curl the tinestake on when inserted in a wall; and

FIG. 6 is a longitudinal central cross-sectional view of a hanger takensubstantially along the line 66 of FIG. 5 and showing the longitudinalcurl of the tines when inserted in a wall.

In general, andin accordance with the teaching of my invention, Iprovide a wall hanger which is intended to be fixed with unusualfirmness to a wall surface merely by thumb pressure. My wall hanger isespecially suitable for mounting on walls made of penetrablecompositions such as plaster, plasterboard, sheet rocks, strawboard andthe soft'woods, because the hanger is constructed to have slender tinesinserted into and embedded in said walls. The hanger is formed, as bystamping, from a single strip of sheet metal, e.'g. soft steel, andconstitutes a flatplate 3,298,651 Patented Jan. 17, 1967 from which apair of slender pointed tines protrude rearwardly and horizontally andfrom which a hook projects forwardly and upwardly. Each tine is free ofthe plate except at its base Where it is integral with the plate.Further, the tines are mirror-images of one another.

My wall hanger features a compound curvature for each of the slendertines which enables them to hold very firmly in any wall into which theyare pushed. The compound curvature effects a far greater resistance towithdrawal of the hanger from a wall than do other hangers having nailsor having tines which may be either straight or curved in only oneplane.

The aforesaid configuration which is an important feature of myinvention constitutes a curving of each of the slender tines of myhanger in two planes, to wit, a curvature is achieved both in a verticalplane and in a horizontal plane. In the vertical plane, each of thetines is curved so that its end portion arches downwardly and in thehorizontal plane each of the tines is configured so that its end portionarches outwardly, each of the tines curving in said horizontal planeaway from the other tine. In other words, each of the tines is outwardlyconcave as viewed in top plan and downwardly concave as viewed in saidelevation.

With this special configuration, when the hanger is pushed into a wallthe tines, as they enter the wall, due to their compound curvature,curve additionally out wardly and additionally downwardly. That is, eachof the tines curls within the interior of the wall, this curling greatlyimpeding any attempted subsequent removal of the hanger from the wall.The tines are forced to enter the wall .until the hanger plate abuts thewall. Then, articles such as pictures and the like may be hung from thehook which is integrally formed from the hanger.

Referring now in detail to the drawings, the refer ence numeral 10denotes a wall hanger construction in accordance with the teaching of myinvention. It will be seen that the entire hanger is integral (formedfrom one piece of material) and is eminently suitable for formation froma single piece of rigid narrow strip sheet metal stock, e.g., soft (lowcarbon) steel or soft brass. In a suitable embodiment of my invention,the metal stock is about 0.04 inch thick. V The hanger includes a plate12 which is generally vertically elongated (see FIGS. 1 and 2) and whichhas a fiat broad front face 14 and a fiat broad rear face 16. As bestseen in front elevation (FIG. 1), the plate includes an uppermushroom-shaped head 18 and a pendant long stem 20. The remainingcomponents of the hanger, other than said plate 12, are in one piecewith and protrude forwardly and rearwardly from said plate.

The hanger further includes a pair of transversely opposed like(mirror-image) slender tines 22, 24. The tines are formed by shearingthe same from the side portions of the original blank for the hanger andare joined to the plate at their respective bases at the under sides ofthe outer ends of the head 18, the same being located at the sides andintermediate the ends of the plate. It will be appreciated that theshearing off of the length of the tines and the rearward orientation ofthe tines gives the plate the aforementioned mushroom-headconfiguration, as seen in FIG. 1. Moreover, the joint of the base ofeach tine and the plate constitutes a shoulder 25 which has a largeinterior area integral with the plate to assure that the base will notbreak from the plate.

The tines, when the plate 12 is vertical, extend in a generallyhorizontal and rearward direction from the plate approximatelyperpendicularly thereto, but have a special compoundly curvedconfiguration soon to be described. Each of the tines tapers from a baseof narrow transverse (side-to-side) width (see FIG. 3) to a thinner endportion which terminates in a sharp tip, respectively, 26, 28 so thatthe tines may be pushed by thumb pressure into a wall W. For the samereason the thickness of each tine is tapered adjacent its pointed tip(see FIG. 2). It will be apparent that the material of each tine beforebeing sheared from the blank strip was disposed within the width of thisstrip so that a strip of minimum width could be employed.

The plate 12 further includes a forwardly and upwardly projecting hook30, the same being struck from a central portion of the plate 12 andleaving an elongated slot 32 in the plate intermediate the top end ofthe head 18 and the lower end of the stem 20. The lower portion of thehook 30 joins a lower portion of the stem 20 at a bend 34. The hook withits bend has a configuration appropriate to receive and hang a wirespanning the rear of a frame of a picture or to protrude through anaperture in an object to be suspended from the wall. The bend 34 islocated between the ends of the head and stem on a line running betweenthe bases of the tines. Quite apparently this construction for the hookrequires neither additional length nor width for the plate, thus againminimizing the amount of material required.

The top end of the slot 32 and thus the tip of the hook is spaced fromthe top of the plate 12 a distance such as to present an upper fiatlarge area of the plate which may be conveniently contacted by the ballof the thumb of the users hand, when pushing my hanger into a wall, muchas is presented by the head of a thumbtack. Said slot end and hook tipterminate below the shoulders to make said pressure area as large asconveniently possible. In FIG. 1 the pressure areas is designated bydotand-dash lines and reference letter T.

Each tine, as best seen in FIG. 3, bends outwardly in a horizontal planeand, as seen in FIG. 2, rearwardly and downwardly in a vertical plane.In the horizontal plane, the tines curve away from one another. Thecurves have an arcuate configuration which can be described as outwardlyconcave or outwardly bowed. The curvatures of the tines in two planes ismost aptly denominated as a compound curve. It should be noted that thetip of each tine lies along a chord which runs from the tip of the tineto the base of the tine, perpendicularly to the plate 12. The said chordis represented by the line XX in FIGS. 2 and 3. Further, the base ofeach tine projects rearwardly from the plate in a directionsubstantially perpendicular to the plate and the length of the tine(except its base) follows a sweeping uninterrupted curve of largeradius. Said radius is in the order of /2 inch. The tip of the timeforms an angle with the wall W which is only slightly less than a rightangle so that the tip will penetrate and not skip outwardly on the wallsurface. The angle is less than 90 (measured on the inside of the tine)so that said tip enters with a sloping orientation to start it on itscurl. Said angle (at in FIG. 3), is preferably 80. In a suitablecommercial embodiment of my invention, each tine is about 0.04 inchsquare in its base transverse dimension.

I have found that the compound lateral and vertical curvatures whichhave been given to each of the tines causes them to tend to be fixedfirmly in a wall despite the moderate degree of force, i.e., thumbpressure, that suffices to implant the tines. FIG. 5 illustrates theadditionally curved spread out paths (in a horizontal plane) which thetines have followed during their insertion. The tines are inserted to apoint at which the back face 16 of the plate abuts and is fiat againstthe surface of the wall. A comparison of the tines curvature as shown inFIG. 3 wherein the hanger is illustrated prior to insertion into a wall,and said curvature as shown in FIG. 5 wherein the hanger is illustratedfully inserted into a wall, demonstrates that the tines during thecourse of their entry into the wall have curled. That is, the tines haveassumed a curvature greater than their initial asmanufactured"curvature; the tines have been brought to' an arcuateconfiguration of smaller radius than the radius of their originalcurvature.

The cur of the tines is also seen by a comparison of FIGS. 2 and 6, theformer illustrating my wall hanger prior to being fixed to a wall andthe latter illustrating the downwardly bowed greater curvature which thetines have assumed when they are fully inserted into a wall. I havefound that the compound curvature just described causes a firmconnection between my wall hanger and a Wall, a connection that isessentially permanent and can withstand the application of substantialWeight, for example, fifty pounds.

The connection of my wall hanger to a wall is enhanced by theutilization of two oppositely compoundly curved tines. It will beappreciated that when a pair of tines of said hanger is inserted into awall, each of which bows initially in a difierent direction, the tineswill curl further away from one another as they enter a wall surface. Todisplace the hanger it is necessary to force the tines to straighten,i.e. to rebend the tines, as they are withdrawn; or it is necessary torupture the portion of the body of the wall that lies in the withdrawalpath of the tines. Thus, I utilize sliding frictoin to retainthe tinesof my hanger in place in a wall (as do conventional hangers havingstraight tines) and in addition I utilize the resistance of the tines tobending and resistance of the wall to rupture as further deterrents tothe accidental removal.

To enable the wall hanger of my invention to be mass produced with thegreatest economy so that it may be marketed at a popular per unit price,it is desirable to fashion the hangers from an elongated strip of metaland to form the tines and hook of each hanger in such a manner as toleave adjacent hangers connected to one another in head-to-footorientation. This permits several hangers to be marketed in strip formas a single unit. The user will, prior to use, break or fracture onehanger from another and to aid in this separation and further to definethe boundaries of each hanger, a break or rupturable line 36 isimpressed at the juncture of the stem of one hanger and the adjacentedge of the head 18 of the next hanger. Said break line (weakenedtransverse zone) is formed by scoring (indenting) the sheet metal striptransversely thereof at appropriate locations therealong so as toprovide grooves at which points the material of the strip is ofrelatively thin front-to-back cross section. A users, by simply bendingone hanger 10 back relative to another hanger 10 about the break line36, will easily rupture the strip at its area of smaller cross-sectionwhere, in addition to the weakness developed by thinning the metal, thestrip has been weakened by cold working, and thus separate one hangerfrom another. In a like manner, the hanger 10' can be, when so desired,separated from the next successive hanger 10". The head-to-footconnection of the hangers in a strip, in conjunction with the formationof the times from the sides of the strip and the formation of the hooksfrom the central part of the body of the plates, results in asubstantial economy in use of metal and adds to the reduction in costwhich I have achieved by the described structure. I

In the stamping of a strip of hangers, only the notches A (see FIG. 4),centered on opposite ends of the break line, between each adjacent pairof hangers are removed as scrap for formation of the hangers. Therespective outward edges of the tines 22, 24 of the hangers constitutethe major portions of the former edge boundaries of the strip from whichthe hangers were fabricated.

It thus will be seen that I have provided a wall hanger which achievesthe several objects of my invention and which is well adapted to meetthe conditoins of practical use.

As various possible embodiments might be made of the above invention,and as various changes might be made, in the embodiment set forth, itis'to be understood that all matter herein described or shown in theaccompanying drawings is to be interpreted as illustrative and not in alimiting sense.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and useful, anddesire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. A wall hanger for suspending an article from a wall said hanger beingformed from a single piece of sheet metal and including a flat plate, apair of pointed slender tines integral with the plate, each tine havinga base joined to the plate, the bases of the tines being laterallyspaced apart on the plate and located intermediate the ends of theplate, each tine projecting rearwardly from the plate with its basegenerally perpendicular to the plate and the tine having anuninterrupted sweeping arc of large radius, and the tip of each tinelying along a chord running from the tip to the base perpendicular tothe plate, the tip of each tine forming an interior angle of slightlyless than 90 to a plane perpendicular to the chord, the tines beinglaterally outwardly concave and downwardly concave whereby the tines arecompoundly curved, and an upwardly facing hook integral with the plateand projecting forwardly therefrom, whereby when the hanger is fixed toa wall by the insertion of the tines into the interior of a wall as bythumb pressure the tines follow a curved path and assume a more arcuatecurled configuration thereby resisting removal from the wall.

2. A wall hanger as set forth in claim 1 wherein each tine is located ata different side of the plate.

3. A wall hanger as set forth in claim 2 wherein the base of each tineforms a laterally jutting shoulder with said plate.

4. A wall hanger as set forth in claim 1 wherein each tine tapers fromits base to its tip.

5. A wall hanger as set forth in claim 3 wherein the hook has an upperend which is spaced downwardly from the shoulders thereby to present aflat long broad area which may be contacted by the thumb of the hand ofa user to push the hanger into the wall.

6. A wall hanger as set forth in claim 1 wherein the hook is formed fromthe center of the plate and has a bend joined to the plate intermediatethe sides and ends of the plate and centered laterally between the basesof th es.

7. A chain of wall hangers unitarily connected in headto-footorientation and formed from a single strip of sheet metal, each hangerincluding a flat plate, a pair of pointed slender tines integral withthe plate, each tine having a base joined to the plate, the bases of thetines being laterally spaced apart on the plate and located intermediatethe ends of the plate and at the sides of the plate, each tineprojecting rearwardly from the plate with its base generallyperpendicular to the plate and the tine having an uninterrupted sweepingcurve of large radius, and the tip of each tine lying along a chordrunning from the tip to the base perpendicular to the plate, the tip ofeach tine forming an interior angle of slightly less than 90 to a planeperpendicular to the chord, the tines being laterally outwardly concaveand downwardly concave whereby the tines are compoundly curved, anupwardly facing hook integral with the plate and projecting forwardlytherefrom, said hook having a bend joined to the plate intermediate thesides and ends of the plate and centered laterally between the bases ofthe tines, and a transverse linear groove at the boundary between thefoot of each hanger and the head of an adjacent hanger constituting aweakened zone, the grooves having front-toback cross-sections less thanthe cross-section of the strip, the trip being readily fracturable alongthe grooves whereby a user can separate one hanger from another prior touse.

8. A chain of wall hangers as set forth in claim 7 wherein the outwardedges of the tines of the hangers constitute the major portions of theprevious edge boundaries of the strip of sheet metal and the foot of onehanger and the head of an adjacent hanger have facing edges which definetwo sides of a notch.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,616,957 2/1927Honigbaum 2482l7 1,651,392 12/1927 Honigbaum 2482l7 2,263,271 11/1941Lazarides 24871 2,282,631 5/1942 Winship -11 2,973,175 2/ 1961 Appleton248216 CLAUDE A. LE ROY, Primary Examiner.

1. A WALL HANGER FOR SUSPENDING AN ARTICLE FROM A WALL SAID HANGER BEINGFORMED FROM A SINGLE PIECE OF SHEET METAL AND INCLUDING A FLAT PLATE, APAIR OF POINTED SLENDER TINES INTEGRAL WITH THE PLATE, EACH TINE HAVINGA BASE JOINED TO THE PLATE, THE BASES OF THE TINES BEING LATERALLYSPACED APART ON THE PLATE AND LOCATED INTERMEDIATE THE ENDS OF THEPLATE, EACH TINE PROJECTING REARWARDLY FROM THE PLATE WITH ITS BASEGENERALLY PERPENDICULAR TO THE PLATE AND THE TINE HAVING ANUNINTERRUPTED SWEEPING ARC OF LARGE RADIUS, AND THE TIP OF EACH TINELYING ALONG A CHORD RUNNING FROM THE TIP TO THE BASE PERPENDICULAR TOTHE PLATE, THE TIP OF EACH TINE FORMING AN INTERIOR ANGLE OF SLIGHTLYLESS THAN 90* TO A PLANE PERPENDICULAR TO THE CHORD, THE TINES BEINGLATERALLY OUTWARDLY CONCAVE AND DOWNWARDLY CONCAVE WHEREBY THE TINES ARECOMPOUNDLY CURVED, AND AN UPWARDLY FACING HOOK INTEGRAL WITH THE PLATEAND PROJECTING FORWARDLY THEREFROM, WHEREBY WHEN THE HANGER IS FIXED TOA WALL BY THE INSERTION OF THE TINES INTO THE INTERIOR OF A WALL AS BYTHUMB PRESSURE THE TINES FOLLOW A CURVED PATH AND ASSUME A MORE ARCUATECURLED CONFIGURATION THEREBY RESISTING REMOVAL FROM THE WALL.